George Soros is Chairman of Soros Fund Management and Chairman of the Open Society Foundations. A pioneer of the hedge-fund industry, he is the author of many books, including
The Alchemy of Finance, The New Paradigm for Financial Markets: The Credit Crisis of 2008 and What it Means, and The Tragedy of the European Union.

The problem is, Mr Soros, that the EU is prevented from taking Brexit seriously by the fact that it is run by an enormous team of extremely well fed bureaucrats, and they don't want, and won't agree to anything that reduces their absurd powers. Turkeys won't vote for Christmas, even if the foolish voters of the UK did so.

Amen. I hope this is correct. But where were all the proponents of the EU during the campaign? If Richard Branson had made a few ads of the quality he does for Virgin Airlines and explained the benefits of the EU we wouldn't be in this situation now. This was largely a failure to motivate people and to remind them of the benefits of membership. The people rightly wanted to do one in the eye of the establishment. There are principled objectors to EU membership but they are not in the majority. Most people were just angry. The EU and Britain both need political repairs and perhaps an overhaul. This is a chance to re-engage. Let's not miss it.

The EU maintains a HUGE trade surplus with UK. UK contributes a LARGE portion of the EU budget. UK spends more on DEFENSE than all other EU members.
The UE needs the UK a lot more than the UK needed the EU. Thankfully, the facts won out. Notwithstanding the hysteria.
Gyorgy is indulging in "wishful thinking". The UK has already confirmed - no do over referenda. So sorry.

In this commentary George Soros seems to throw down his gauntlet to Rupert Murdoch, whose tabloid, "The Sun" had relentlessly backed Brexit, with its slogan - "BeLeave in Britain." Teem with enthusiasm Soros speaks of "Regrexit" - a promising change of heart among Britons after a nearly 52% vote for leaving the EU - noting that "the tragedy no longer looks like a fait accompli." He points out the predictable behaviour of "buyer's remorse" when the country faces devastating consequences of its action. The turmoil in the stock and currency markets is only dwarfed by another threat - Scotland's aspiration to leave the UK to rejoin the EU.
What is interesting is that the chickens have come home to roost - "internecine self-destruction" within political parties, which have seen one Brexit leader after another abandoning the sinking ship. No one seems willing or up to the task to face the new challenges - to take Britain out of the EU and negotiate new deals with the bloc, while dealing with the demand for a second referendum.
At first sight the EU could see the domino effect of Brexit among its member states. Hardly has the shock worn off, another doomy forecast for the European project seems in the offing - Italy's banking crisis. Although the EU is deeply mired in crises and the refugee crisis has played "a critical role in bringing about the greater calamity of Brexit," there is hope that Europe might emerge stronger, instead of facing an "inevitable disintegraion."
The "Leave" vote has created a "positive momentum" for mobilising young people in Britain and across Europe, and defied predictions that it would inspire a surge in copycat breakaway movements. Mainstream political parties benefit from pro-EU leanings and enjoy gains, while populists see dropping points in the polls. Indeed, "this is the kind of grassroots involvement that the EU has never been able to generate."
Although Westminister dismissed the demand of over four million petitioners for a second referendum to reverse the prevous vote, Soros says "a signature collecting campaign could transform the political landscape by revealing a newfound enthusiasm for EU membership." Hence it is important that Brussels shouldn't "penalize British voters while ignoring their legitimate concerns about the deficiencies of the Union." He says "European leaders should recognize their own mistakes and acknowledge the democratic deficit in the current institutional arrangements. Rather than treating Brexit as the negotiation of a divorce, they should seize the opportunity to reinvent the EU."
Soros highlights four issues that EU leaders need to address - "a clear distinction.... between membership of the EU and of the eurozone" - no discrimination against non-Eurozone members; to exploit the EU's "excellent and largely untapped credit" to boost growth, and to create a plan to resolve the refugee crisis, by providing "adequate funding to Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey to support the four million refugees currently living in those countries; to increase aid to Ukraine, which is pro-EU and tries to defend European values against "its external enemies," who seek to "take advantage of its current weakness."
Soros urges the EU to "makes progress along these lines," - including "treaty change" to allow its members to have the freedom to choose between more or less integration, providing them the incentive to remain. If politicians "fail to act, those who want to save the EU in order to reinvent it should follow the lead of the young activists in Britain." Much is on hold for the moment as France and Germany - EU's two leading member states - are holding general elections in 2017. While Angela Merkel is most likely to remain in power, François Hollande will unlikely be re-elected, due to his low approval ratings. Should Greece and Italy be engulfed by another crisis, the mood of EU supporters would change. Dark clouds are still gathering over Europe, but evey cloud has its silver lining.

I believe that with the EU, like for that matter many other forms of Supranational Governance such as UN, IMF/WB, etc... happens something similar to when we think about the different types of National Democracies at country level... all of them are imperfect but more desirable than their absence.

And that is the crucial point: it has taken hundreds of years (and of human lives and efforts) to arrive at the type of National Democracies we currently enjoy and cherish (despite imperfections), and so that time to leave behind many other types of national governance that were, let's call it politely, less optimal.
With Supranational Governance I think it has happened the same, only that the process is more recent, just decades (i.e. post-Napoleonic war - ref. "Governing The World" by Mark Mazower) and arguably more complex, so there are many more mistakes to correct and lessons to learn until arriving at more optimal, stable configurations.

Now, let's make justice to them: how much net benefit (or net cost/suffering saving) have these Supranational Governance bodies produced since they exist for their members? I think it would not be difficult to say that a huge lot, despite all their faults and failures.

Now, in many of these organizations, countries have joined, and have left, ... the fact the UK decided to leave the EU, regardless of the positive or negative consequences it might have for the leaving state, does not necessarily must mean the end of the EU; it could more likely mean the end of some of the current features of the EU, and this is the good opportunity Mr. Soros point's towards as near everybody coincides the EU definitely needs profound fixes.

On the point of Ukraine, as other fellow repliers, I would disagree with Mr. Soros. I am afraid, Ukraine is well beyond the current remit of EU now, and actually belongs more on the sphere of NATO... this is an extremely delicate situation that has the potential to lead to a military confrontation with Russia. Thus, I suspect, more appropriately to be treated with full dedication on a different article and section of Project Syndicate.

Ukrainian revolutionary leadership proved to be much more corrupt than the previous government. Soros should abandon his childhood misconceptions about aiding American hegemony through creation of conflicts in Europe.

The concept of 'regrexit' is a myth. It is just regret of the remain crowd that they lost. The leave crowd dislike the supra nationalist elite as much now as before. As far as consequences, they are over stated just as the the benefits of neoliberalism have been overstated.

these are very hopeful words, but they (in my opinion) tend to veil the real issue at hand: rising nationalism in an ever more unregulated financial world. Does this really reflect the direction Europe is trying to take? I identify myself with a Europe that is an alternative to Coldwar-type extremes, and here we are coming up with a whole new (or old ;) ) extreme of our own? Is Italy's economic and refugee crisis - really Italy's crisis? or is it partly the fault of a local political rhetoric which refused to switch to isolationism, extreme right, and ultracapitalism (like, say, Poland-Austria-Hungary) ?

There is no doubt that there will be serious and possibly dangerous outfall for the voters in the UK and for those who have invested In the EU. It strikes me that democracy has failed when uneducated or irresponsible, or manipulated populations vote. I think that Mr. Churchill commented somewhat along these lines. I know of no other institutional system that works any better, so I guess that is the heartache.
The immigration situation is more an invasion than anything else, though I understand the desperation in these unfortunate people's minds. Perhaps they should only be integrated after they have demonstrated that they have the capability to respect the Laws and Freedoms of the countries that they have over run. Any and all incidents of an unwillingness to adopt the life style and responsibilities of the host Nation should should be dealt with severely.
As for our News networks, they should stick to stating the news and also be held accountable for the promotion of only Governmental views. And lastly, so should our representatives, Democracy only works when the elected officials truly represent the people that voted for them and not the current
neo-socialist and politically correct mannerisms of these currently in power.

Brexit vote was not a catastrophe, just another market jitter to speculate on and spread fear. Great Britain should not regret but work more seriously on its exit plan. Your comments on Ukraine totally out of place.

Not surprisingly, Soros makes a pitch for Ukraine, which is not an EU country. Does it have something to do with his investments?

The EU began to fall apart when Germany and France placed the interests of their insolvent banks over that of the Greek population. It imposed a neo-liberal troika to manage the Greek economy, thereby negating any claim to be a democratic union.

Only time will tell whether the overall net benefits to the UK, or the UK minus the relatively poorer Scotland and N. Ireland, hence GB, will be greater of less than current EU membership would have provided (an interesting counterfactual).

The Euro zone has become a German-run economic satellite, and Soros is correct to note that the EU is more than the Euro zone. But Germany will push, and push hard, to include all EU members into whatever arrangements it dictates (diktat) for strengthening the fiscal and financial arrangements needed to compensate for the monetary union's rigidity and consequent imbalances.

Your view on the German role is rather one-sided and based on wrong assumptions. Any financial assistance by Germany to Club Med is excluded by the treaties. We agreed on monetary union but we strictly excluded debt union. So any help to the overendebted Greek people was illegal back in 2010 as it is illegal by this day. Your common sense should tell you that if you start borrowing recklessly and then present the bill to your neighbour then under normal circumstances your neighbour will not pay for you. Without the euro, Club Med would have never ever been able to borrow more than 100% of GDP. They had a nice party with Olympic Games in Athens and gigantic infrastructure projects in Spain and Portugal, they lived way above their means but they did not reform their encrusted structures to become competetive without the possibility of devaluation. Then they first ran out of creditworthiness and then out of money. And if the debtors moan the creditors' "dictate" then it is on the one hand understandable but on the other hand pointless. I don't necessarily critize the Greeks because they just exploited the system. I critize the system itself which allowed friends to become debtors and creditors. Germany has no interest to dictate conditions on Athens or Madrid - the respective Greek and Spanish parliaments have to decide about the future of their nations themselves. That's why I strongly favour the destruction of the "EU" i.e. the liberation of Europe. And the first step to achieve this goal has to be the Grexit.

Democracy enables the democratic process to be followed to its logical finale.
Recklessness can create irreversible damages - hence the democratic process has built in checks and balances.
Given the mayhem that has been let loose, The Leave Leadership ought to be accountable.
And at the very least - show the Nation the Light at the end of the tunnel.
And if the terms and conditions of the proposed divorce are not obtainable - The Leave Leadership must confess.
Recklessness can be controlled through the same democratic process - often The Truth is distilled after several tests.
Parliament in a Democracy is supreme for a reason - it's deliberations are the distillation process that educates the Nation.
Allowing for recklessness, allowing for a plausible mistake, permitting reconsideration - until the cumulative wisdom is found.
Once Europe is reformed - although it appears unlikely, as Brussels believes it won - the opportunity for Britain's return will be lost forever.
Respect for democratic outcome also requires Faith in the democratic process.
And if at the end of the process, Brexit remains The Truth - Truth always Wins.
The Little Island is Great Britain - for many reasons other than the EU.

For those who want to have referendum after referendum until they get the result they want, that's not democracy, that's intellectual dishonesty.

Also, the EU has given no sign whatsoever that it has learned any lesson from Brexit. In fact, it seems to have convinced itself that everything EU is good, and every other opinion is invalid. That's denial by any standard.

Being so married to denial, why would the EU even consider changing one thing?

Were the UK to hold another referendum (or more than one) until the result appears that allows it to stay in the EU, that would only further convince EU mandarins that they are in the right, and the UK referendum result was only an aberration -- probably due to the weather or something. "Certainly not our fault."

No. The UK must leave the EU, or there will be no change at all. Ever.

We can't honestly expect the Brussels apparachiks and Nomenklatura to admit error, or to admit responsibility for Brexit, can we? They won't!

And they can't be voted out of office, so that new blood can come in and fix the wrongs (adjust the policies to meet the needs of all EU citizens, not only the elites and somewhat arguably, the top 3 quintiles of each EU nation)

People that must seek re-election would have made all of those necessary changes long ago, or they would have been voted from office.

The worst thing possible, would be for the UK to reward the EU by returning to the EU fold, for NOT MAKING THE NECESSARY POLICY CHANGES.

For that will only guarantee that those changes will never be made, nor will any future changes ever be made.

The UK is leaving. That's guaranteed. The people of the UK are a hardy breed and they have survived much worse than Brexit that's for certain! And they will simply adopt EEA and/or EFTA rules and still preserve their unique identity and culture, and regain their sovereignty.

>>Rewarding the EU for NOT fixing their democratic deficit is not the way to go here.<<

John Brian Shannon has spoken.
"The UK is leaving. That's guaranteed. The people of the UK are a hardy breed and they have survived much worse than Brexit that's for certain! And they will simply adopt EEA and/or EFTA rules and still preserve their unique identity and culture, and regain their sovereignty."
Well John, as the saying goes "It ain't over till it's over".
Here's another scenario.
Britain is an insufferably arrogant little country that had to be rescued from the Two World Wars that it thought it could win just by turning up. It may have created a trade war with the EU and if it has then it will be another war that it cannot win - nothing new there. The aim of Brexit is to make Britain better off outside the EU. The aim of the EU is to make Britain far worse off outside the EU to deter others from trying to follow Britain. History teaches us that when a single country takes on an alliance of many other countries then there is only ever going to be one winner. It's just a matter of time. The EEA and/or EFTA won't save us nor the WTO nor the Norway model.
The EU is a noble vision created by far sighted visionaries who do not want to risk a return to the killing fields of 20C Europe. The vision is invisible to short-sighted reactionaries who want to return to nationalism and isolation that led eventually to The Great Dying in The Age of Slaughter and those killing fields.
Already the Brexit campaign has been revealed as a tissue of misrepresentation, deceit, and lies that has been abandoned by its two main protagonists, Farage and Johnson, and left May to pick up the pieces. Cameron didn't resign because he lost the referendum but because he knew what was coming.
As a result of its pig-headed arrogance Britain unwittingly has forced Brussels into a corner. If Brussels is to save its vision then it cannot risk other nations following Britain's example and the only way to do that is to ruin Britain and thus deter others. Brussels will not negotiate the four basic freedoms - movement of goods, services, capital, and labour - and Britain cannot negotiate with an EU that is not willing to negotiate.
Britain will try to replace its lost trade by finding new markets. When it offers one market of 60 million people then the EU will step in and offer 27 markets of 600 million people. It is not too difficult to predict which option the new market will choose. The USA will put immense irresistible pressure on Britain to remain in the EU which it regards as an instrument of cooperation for promoting peace, harmony, and prosperity in the world. It will not tolerate an infuriating xenophobic little upstart spoiling things and will encourage the EU to do us over - secretly of course.
Our new Prime Minister has said "Brexit means Brexit. We will get the best deal possible for Britain." When the best deal promises poverty in the short term and ruin in the long term then one way or another Brexit will become Bremain.
And when the fat lady sings it will be the uplifting "Star Spangled Banner" not the dreary "God save the queen".

If EU leaders try to play that in some particular way, people will feel played and it may backfire. Appreciate it and see whether it actually influences underlying preferences for desires, rather than burning up political capital to try to manipulate opinions on other EU-related subjecs. In my opinion.

Ukrainians are not happy with their government:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/187931/ukrainians-disillusioned-leadership.aspx?version=print
Ukrainians Disillusioned With Leadership

Ukrainians think that "reforms" only made their life forse:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/187985/ukrainians-life-ratings-sank-new-lows-2015.aspx?version=print
Ukrainians' Life Ratings Sank to New Lows in 2015

http://razumkov.org.ua/ukr/poll.php?poll_id=1001
24.3% of polled Ukrainians don't believe in success of reforms,
32% saying that their situation is already desperate, so they do not want to bear reforms that could worsen it.

http://razumkov.org.ua/eng/poll.php?poll_id=66
As of April 2016 72.2% of Ukrainians think that situation in Ukraine is in wrong direction

Only 17.5% of Ukrainians willing to die defending Ukraine, 32.4% want to participate in volunteer helping work, 30.8% won't defend Ukraine at all and for 19.3% it is "hard to say".
http://razumkov.org.ua/eng/poll.php?poll_id=1131

The EU should not penalise Britain for leaving, but as Mr Soros says, should recognise the legitimate concerns. The EU was unwise and perhaps arrogant to refuse to respond helpfully to Mr Cameron's requests for change. Especially at a time when Hungary is putting up razor wire fences, and the EU is turning a blind eye. The closer political union is not wanted by everyone, but the EU marches on with this in mind.

Well, anarchists rule in the comments section!
In a world where small countries are rules by corporate power, the only protection people have is unions like the EU. Yes, the EU has some structural problems, which it should repair. Giving up is losing.

The "EU" itself is anarchic. Rules like the no-bailout clause only exist on paper but are worth nothing. The treaties are broken at will. And then, the most clever thing: they have their own court which gives them carte blanche.

Agree. In an increasingly interconnected world, the nation-states are less and less powerful. EU is an attempt to create a supra-national democratic bloc to handle questions that states cannot easily do, in particular trade.

The big money and multinational corporations have no less influence over nation states, and trade agreements are still overseen by trade commissions, not by elected parliaments.

Tell that Greek people. With EU "protection" their debt-to-gdp ratio first went to 109%, and then when EU with IMF introduced real reforms, it went to 174%
http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/tgm/table.do?tab=table&init=1&language=en&pcode=teina225&plugin=1

'Brexit was a vote against socialism and a hegemonic bloc, a continuation of the Great Unwinding that began with the collapse of empires after the First World War.''

''The EU is a new socialist order, more benign than empires of old, but akin to them in creating a massive hegemon of centralized political power that attempts to stamp out national interests and free trade''
http://business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/lawrence-solomon-brexit-was-the-u-k-s-vote-against-a-new-socialist-empire

Thanks George but there is and has been no enthusiasm for the EU in the UK for decades as you know, nor is the Brexit vote likely to cause it.

David Cameron fought the Remain campaign on the basis that we could get reform from inside. The economy, 'Project Fear', was in support of that but was only one argument. And possibly the first and last time a government will risk talking its economy down.

The majority of those who voted Leave decided that was not the case and that they wanted to return the powers that successive governments had ceded to the EU to their own elected representatives. In certain areas they may articulate it differently less elegantly, citing immigration in particular, but they actually voted to take back control - for their democracy.

There is an old saying in the UK that "If it isn't broken, don't fix it".

Mr. SOMOS is a man of ideas, but the problem is deeper. A one euronomic system cannot work at this stage. Integration and discipline are hard after hundreds of years of "monarchism". It takes time for full economic integration and this is part of the process. Like the song says: "some will win, some will loose, some will go along to sing the blues". As I mentioned previous comments, the EU should had been a three tier system. Putting 23 small but very different countries under the same economic system was a mistake. But still the EU is powerful enough to survive. My only recommendation is to start treating their currency more as a commodity thus adding value and bringing more investment. Kind of what happened to the dollar, even though it happened by mistake and did not go further enough.

George
It is to late for the Brexit trend to be reversed.
The banking crisis in Itsly is just a another symptom of how disfunctional the EU is structure and if they do not solve it quickly it could speed up the demise of the EU. as you probably know, Italian banks have NPLthat are over 20% of GDP. Bails-ins are only a long term solutions to banks problems. The banking crisis In Italy is a "clear and present danger to not only the EU but the entire world financial system.
The main issues are about culture and immigration. If you want the EU to survive they need to address thiese issues quickly.
Ken Woods

Am I alone in wondering whether Soros Fund Management controls (directly or indirectly) some Ukrainian assets which Mr Soros fears will not appreciate appropriately under a federal constitution such as the Minsk II accords envisaged? Or that like other US conservatives he believes that US control of Ukraine (with the hep of European proxies) will seriously weaken Russia and so strengthen US influence on Europe?

Soros is showing just how out of touch he is with both the UK and Europe and the kind of fantasy world he lives in. I realise that he is upset that the Brits did not follow his advice - but he and his hedge fund friends are part of the reason we voted out. We don't want to be in a corporate Europe run by hedge funds! There has not been a 'popular' uprising in defence of the EU and there has not been a big change of heart. Young people have not been mobilised into the kind of Little Red Brigades that Soros envisages. There has been no shift in public opinion. Only 4 million people out of 16 million who voted Remain signed the petition - not even that. Tens of thousands were found to be fraudulent and people could sign from all over the world! When you get to the level of saying that the EU 's biggest asset is Ukraine - you realise just how illogical this emotive and irrational analysis is.

If I were to apply Soros' own theory of reflexivity to this analysis, I would observe the following. The EU is a construct based on a false belief: The viability of global governance. The globalists created a "subjective truth" by whipping up support for the idea of global governance. At first, they get enough popular belief to sustain this trendy belief and prop up globalization efforts for a while, but there is an underlying trend working against them: People work for their own self-interest. The objective reality is that governance which supersedes the nation-state is inhospitable to human life. It is therefore unstable. Self-preservation is the first law of nature; the people under such governance will eventually rebel against their scheming elites when their lives become obviously threatened.

The Brexit vote was the inflection point, but the globalists continue in their false belief as long as possible by feeding themselves and others false supporting narratives. They claim that there is a buyer's remorse for Brexit, even though quantitative data (polling) show the exact opposite. They cite the sterling plunge, as if this were a bad thing and not the intent of Brexiteers in the first place (it's good for exports). They generalize Brexit internecine warfare over one incident (Gove vs. Boris). They point to the apparent success of a second referendum petition, even though most of the signatures are foreign and most Remain Brits reject the notion of a second referendum as undemocratic.

The false beliefs and supporting narratives reinforce the EU supporters in their behavior, making them more and more vicious and controlling of Leavers and other nationalists. This accelerates the collapse of the globalist trend by aggravating nationalists and making nationalist action ever more urgent and extreme.

Eventually, with enough losses all across Europe, which I won't detail here, the false belief cracks, and the globalists are routed. The EU dissolves and nation-states rise once again.

As the Brexit vote has shown there are many people rejecting the "EU" - and they are the majority. But they have no chance of being heard as they are excluded from public debate. The mechanisms for this are manifold: The mass media are controlled by the elites and only bring pro-"EU" propaganda while suppressing opposing opinions. The parliaments are controlled by the government (not the other way round!) and the government decides whether deputies get the chance to stand for reelection or not. And there are many other mechanisms being used to implement censorship (e.g. NGOs financed by the government or by the elites, large corporate networks or social research institutes controlled by elites closely linked to the government etc.). Just two highlighting examples: The current speaker for the German government was a news anchor in state television before and his predecessor now heads state television in Bavaria.

So, if the "EU" really wants to survive, I would have some other propositions which could be summarized under the terms perestroika and glasnost: Democratic participation of all social groups, strict adherence to the rule of law, separation of powers, no manipulation of prices and interest rates, no taxation without representation, freedom of speech and freedom of opinion, real, honest and open public debates including critical opinions.

The Brexit should force the EU to build a positive value proposition and vision for Europe, but unfortunately we are witnessing the entrenchment of positions, and unfortunately while the Brexit movement has no official leader, the Leaders and officers from the EU have been tanking inadmissible positions.

And even the moderates in the EU side are now talking like the EU has no faults and skipping what has to be done, negating this opportunity to create and discuss a new Europe.

The end of the refugee crisis must start by stabilizing and developing the regions and not by providing refuge. And the immigration in the EU is stopped by the development of opportunities in the depressed regions. Immigration is the after war the worst thing that can happen to a country and a people.

What the EU is proposing and what the moderates are buying into is on a policy to build walls and further depress the already problematic regions within the EU.

Jose, D. Cameron in his resignation speech said that he and his government are not going to be the ones to take the UK out of the EU and yet all his government ministers and officials are now running left and right trying to negotiate new trade deals with other countries (instead of working on stabilising the UK economy) ignoring totally that the UK is still an integral part of the EU. Of course the EU institutions are at a loss, especially when they have no one, or no one credible, to speak with and when both main UK political establishments, have not only collapsed but showed their true sinister intentions.

What strikes me the most isthat Mr. Soros fails to recognize that Brexit vote is the best example of the good functionning of the open society he is an advocate and active promoter since years. Instead of a revolutionary change, riots or strikes, Brits just made the decision in a very civilized way. What will be ther practical result of it, we will see in years to come (it also depends on what the EU will do), but in Soros' world there is no place for external evaluation of open society's decisions. The only jedgement he may have (in line with his own theories) is whether Brexit vote is good or bad for his interests or interests he represents. When reading or listening to Mr. Soros, one must remember this distinction as it sheds some light at his real intentions.

I agree with you Jacek. The British people exercised their political authority and voted to leave the EU. What has the mainstream narrative been? How much they will regret it, even coining the term "Regrexit", and only offering opinions from experts on how it will negatively affect them in the long run. Where is the analysis on how this could be a positive change for Britain been? It's all doom and gloom. Britain is no longer being dragged down by the bureaucracy of the EU, a decision made by the people, for the people. Mr. Soros needs to cope with this fact.

Should we not start by leaving Ukraine out of it. It's the same size as Germany (if I remember correctly), and the living standards are below of Bulgaria (which is the poorest country in EU). The EU does not have the money to bring Ukraine up to European standards - no matter how much Mr. Soros wants it.

Also the UK state finances would probably have been in a different state if Mr. Soros hadn't played his small game and forced them to float the pound.

In some way the article have it's merits, but the EU cannot be saved be including Ukraine, but Italy must sort out it's bank problems.

If Ukraine is "the EU's greatest asset," then the organization is in serious trouble. Luckily, Ukraine is Soros' private fetish; few share his view of its value. Similarly, a Eurozone with greater resources that is still not capable of enforcing basic rules vis a vis Italy would probably do little more than create room for problems to grow. Lastly, the EU's credit can be put to use only when and if its taxing capacity is raised.

It's never hard to imagine steps that an organization might take, but it's always hard to foresee the consequences of those actions when the organization itself is a work in progress.

The refugee crisis did not play a critical role in Brexit. The Brexit issue has long been brewing, way before 2015. Events in 2015 did little to impress anybody about the way the EU works, or fails to work, but had minor impact

The EU is currently making it clear they wish to penalty the UK, further the current EU idea is the EU should be EZ. You need to talk to the EU not the UK about this

At what point does Europe end.. Turkey, Ukraine or ever onward? Circa 2005 the then Us ambassador is reported as advising that Russia would not be prepared to lose the Black Sea Naval Base in Crimea. As the Ukraine situation inevitable involves Crimea there are implications which cannot be glossed over

It is clear that expanding the EU to include the ex communist states has been disruptive and there remains conflict on the basics of democracy. Until the current EU is more stable further expansion does not appear something to rush for. What is more notable is those rebels that call themselves Switzerland have now withdrawn their application to join the EU. The catalyst is the freedom of EU movement. If you have a honey pot and wasps appear you put the lid on the honeypot. The wasps appear to have a veto on putting the lid back on your own pot in the EU

If Renzi runs into trouble, which looks likely I cannot see the EU magically transforming itself at the rate needed to accomodate the outcome, so the threatening knee jerk reaction is far more likely, as so obviously shown with GR and again by Schulz berating the UK Brexit. Unappetizing and undemocratic and reminiscent of the USSR diktat. Why do you expect anybody to rush towards diktat?

Strategically I agree, and I think most would, with your 4 action points.

Sadly there is no unity within the EU and when the populations of France, Germany, Sweden, Italy, Poland and everywhere are reminded of this the blip in the opinion polls will fade back into the general pre-Brexit frustration.

The true problem that has emerged is those nations that are creating enough wealth and are prepared to plan and save now for tomorrow simply don’t want the new Europe as much as a small group of elitist politicians, mostly living well in Brussels.

“What the EU must not do is penalize British voters while ignoring their legitimate concerns about the deficiencies of the Union.” – Anyone sensible will agree but already we see senior EU politicians and officials doing precisely this. Very few of them have a background or even understanding of wealth creation, they are parasites and their problem is they are recognised increasingly for it.

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